US XX Corps

The XX Corps was a corps of the US Army that was active from 1942 to 1946 and from 1957 to 1970. It was constituted on 10 October 1943 by re-designating the IV Armored Corps, a training organization which had been activated at Camp Young, California on 5 September 1942. The corps became operational in France as a part of George S. Patton's US Third Army on 1 August 1944, securing the bridgehead at Le Mans and liberating Angers on 10 August. It then fought a successful battle for Chartres from 15 to 19 August, and it seized bridgeheads over the Seine River at Melun and Montereau on 23 August 1944, over the Marne on 27 August (followed two days later by the liberation of Reims), and over the Meuse River on 31 August (the same day as the liberation of Verdun). On 7 September 1944, the refuelled XX Corps moved on Metz and Thionville, and its division fought for the lands around Metz for three months. After the liberation of France, the XX Corps went on to fight in the Rhineland, at the Battle of the Bulge, and in Germany, ending the war in Austria. It was deactivated in 1946, but it was later active from 1957 to 1957.